Leavenworth man sentenced to more than 12 years in child pornography case

A 55-year-old Leavenworth man has been sentenced to more than 12 years for distributing child pornography and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to victims whose photos were distributed on the Internet, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Leon Smith was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that in June 2010 an FBI agent in Tulsa downloaded 56 files of child pornography from Smith’s computer using publicly available peer-to-peer file sharing software. Smith admitted he searched for child pornography on the Internet, which he saved in folders on his computer.

In addition to a prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Carlos Murgia ordered Smith to pay $3,000 restitution to one victim and $2,000 to another whose photos were distributed on the Internet. Grissom commended the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask for their work on the case.